timmmmmmmmmmmmmmay!!!!!

Lawmaker Wants Feds to Probe N.Y. Times
- By DEVLIN BARRETT, AP Writer  Sunday, June 25, 2006

(06-25) 20:04 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration on Sunday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.

Rep. Peter King cited The New York Times in particular for publishing a story last week that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.

King, R-N.Y., said he would write Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging that the nation's chief law enforcer "begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times — the reporters, the editors and the publisher."

"We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous," King told The Associated Press.

A message left Sunday with Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis was not immediately returned.

King's action was not endorsed by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

"On the basis of the newspaper article, I think it's premature to call for a prosecution of the New York Times, just like I think it's premature to say that the administration is entirely correct," Specter told "Fox News Sunday."

Stories about the money-monitoring program also appeared last week in The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. King said he thought investigators should examine those publications, but that the greater focus should be on The New York Times because the paper in December also disclosed a secret domestic wiretapping program.

He charged that the paper was "more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people."

When the paper chose to publish the story, it quoted the executive editor, Bill Keller, as saying editors had listened closely to the government's arguments for withholding the information, but "remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use of it may be, is a matter of public interest."

In a letter posted on its Internet site Sunday that the Times said was sent to people who wrote to Keller, the editor said the administration argued "in a half-hearted way" that disclosure of the program "would lead terrorists to change tactics."

But Keller wrote that the Treasury Department has "trumpeted ... that the U.S. makes every effort to track international financing of terror. Terror financiers know this, which is why they have already moved as much as they can to cruder methods. But they also continue to use the international banking system, because it is immeasurably more efficient than toting suitcases of cash."

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the paper acted responsibly, both in last week's report and in reporting last year about the wiretapping program.

"It's pretty clear to me that in this story and in the story last December that the New York Times did not act recklessly. They try to do whatever they can to take into account whatever security concerns the government has and they try to behave responsibly," Dalglish said. "I think in years to come that this is a story American citizens are going to be glad they had, however this plays out."

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Treasury officials obtained access to a vast database called Swift — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The Belgium-based database handles financial message traffic from thousands of financial institutions in more than 200 countries.

Democrats and civil libertarians are questioning whether the program violated privacy rights.

The service, which routes more than 11 million messages each day, mostly captures information on wire transfers and other methods of moving money in and out of the United States, but it does not execute those transfers.

The service generally does not detect private, individual transactions in the United States, such as withdrawals from an ATM or bank deposits. It is aimed mostly at international transfers.

Gonzales said last month that he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security. He also said the government would not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.

In recent months, journalists have been called into court to testify as part of investigations into leaks, including the unauthorized disclosure of a CIA operative's name.

He said the First Amendment right of a free press should not be absolute when it comes to national security.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/25/national/w185244D43.DTL

(06-10) 12:56 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Three detainees at Guantanamo Bay apparently committed suicide amid protests of the U.S. military prison by inmates, the Defense Department said Saturday. They were the first reported deaths at the controversial detention center where suspected terrorists have been held for as long as 4 1/2 years.

Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells" early Saturday, according to a statement from the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive the prisoners, but failed.

The United States is holding about 460 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban at Guantanamo Bay, which has become a sore subject between President Bush and U.S. allies who otherwise are staunch supporters of his policies.

The Pentagon scheduled a briefing for later Saturday.

Bush, spending the weekend at Camp David, was notified of the incident. The State Department was consulting with the governments of the home countries of the three prisoners, whose names were not released.

The military said in its statement that "all lifesaving measures had been exhausted" in the attempt to revive the detainees. The remains were being treated "with the utmost respect," an issue important to Muslims. A cultural adviser was assisting the military.

Though the military termed the deaths suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was investigating to establish the official cause and manner of death.

A U.N. panel said May 19 that holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo violated the world's ban on torture. The panel said the United States should close the detention center.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are among those who also recently have urged the United States to close the prison.

On Friday, after the prison came up during a meeting with Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David, Bush said his goal is to do just that.

"We would like to end the Guantanamo — we'd like it to be empty," Bush said. But he added: "There are some that, if put out on the streets, would create grave harm to American citizens and other citizens of the world. And, therefore, I believe they ought to be tried in courts here in the United States."

Bush said his administration was waiting for the Supreme Court to rule whether he overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.

The military's statement defended the prison, saying detainees pose a danger to the United States and its allies.

"They have expressed a commitment to kill Americans and our friends if released," the statement said. "These are not common criminals. They are enemy combatants being detained because they have waged war against our nation and they continue to pose a threat."

Moazzam Begg, 37, a British Muslim who spent three years in U.S. detention, including two years at Guantanamo before being released in 2005, told The Associated Press, "We all expected something like this but were not prepared. It's just awful. I hope the Bush administration will finally see this is wrong."

There have been increasing displays of defiance from Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who have been held for up to 4 1/2 years with many claiming their innocence.

Until now, Guantanamo officials have said there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees and no deaths since the U.S. began taking prisoners to the base in January 2002. Defense lawyers contend the number of suicide attempts is higher.

Those held at Guantanamo "have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice. And now they're gone. And they died without ever having seen a court," Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a telephone interview from New York. Her group represents about 300 Guantanamo detainees.

She appealed to the administration "for immediate action to do the right thing. They should be taken to court or released. I don't think this country wants the stain of injustice on it for many years to come."

A spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office, who declined to be identified in keeping with department policy said: "Obviously, this is a very sad event."

On May 18, in one of the prison's most violent incidents, a detainee staged a suicide attempt to lure guards into a cellblock where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said. Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressants they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells. The men have since recovered.

There also has been a hunger strike among detainees since August. The number of inmates refusing food dropped to 18 by last weekend from a high of 131. The military has at times used aggressive force-feeding methods, including a restraint chair.

Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds in London and Andrew Selsky in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/10/national/w113408D20.DTL

Moms-to-Be Delay Births on June 6, 2006
- By VERENA DOBNIK, AP Writer   Tuesday, June 6, 2006

(06-06) 15:53 PDT New York (AP) --

Around the country, some superstitious mothers-to-be took steps Tuesday to make sure their babies were not born on the most bedeviling of dates, 6-6-6.

In New York, "people are canceling left and right because of what today represents," said Liza Washington, an administrative assistant at Children's Hospital of the New York-Presbyterian Medical Center. More than a dozen deliveries were postponed because of 666, which is said to be the "Number of the Beast" in the Book of Revelation.

Many of the expectant mothers had been scheduled to deliver babies by Caesarean section or after doctors artificially induced labor.

Julie Haley, 33, of Reading, Mass., went into labor Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, she still had not given birth.

"We were going to try to get it out before midnight or I was going to keep my legs closed," she said. "I don't want her to have that stigma for the rest of her life. When she gets older, her friends would say that anything bad would be because of her birthdate."

A Chicago obstetrician, Dr. Scott Pierce, performed a C-section on Monday on a woman who didn't want her son to be teased about his birthday and called names like Damien from the movie "The Omen," about a sinister boy who turns out to be the Antichrist. A remake of the classic horror film was released on Tuesday.

Pierce, who works at two Chicago-area hospitals, said he and his colleagues canceled any deliveries scheduled for Tuesday. But he added, "I'll do nothing that is ethically not indicated."

Pierce said that in general, about 25 percent of all births involve C-sections whose timing can be controlled "give or take a day." And about 30 percent of births are natural, but labor is artificially induced, allowing the timing to be controlled as well.

In Wichita, Kan., a woman suddenly realized that her delivery date was June 6, and asked her doctor to delay the birth, said Dr. James Whiddon of the obstetrics and gynecology department at Wichita Clinic.

Another baby was born early because of 666.

Tabitha Unternahrer of Wayland, Iowa, was supposed to have a C-section on Tuesday but called her doctor and had the date moved up. Her daughter, Taryn Reney, was born May 31.

"About two weeks ago I realized the date and called and told them it had to be moved," said Unternahrer, whose decision was triggered by a dream about complications in childbirth.

Rebecca Zerkin scheduled her baby girl's birth by C-section for the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year — on purpose.

"I did it because June 5 is my birthday and I wanted us to each have our own birthday," said the 35-year-old teacher, still on painkillers as she held her five-hour-old infant at Manhattan's St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. As for the superstition, "I couldn't care less. The date is easy to remember."

Jill Haub, born on June 6, 1966, celebrated her 40th birthday on Tuesday. She is a mother of two boys and teaches sixth-graders in Yukon, Okla.

"When I tell people my birthday, the ones who are really brave give me the look and say, `That's scary!'" said Haub, a practicing Christian. "And I say, `Actually, I have an extra 6 — born on 6-6-66 — so that's four sixes. I'm good, not evil.'"

Associated Press writers Ling Liu in Boston and Natasha Metzler in Washington contributed to this story.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/06/06/national/a142422D30.DTL

step one:  pre-emptive attacks on sovereign nations based on lies

step two:  absurd failures, vicious murders and endless cover-ups

step three:  change the rules, so that the absurd failures, vicious murders and endless cover-ups are now referred to as smashing successes, necessary self-defense and true democracy  

step four:  silence anyone who disagrees with these thoughts

step five:  feel your brain leak out of your eyes ... and ears ....

PENTAGON TO DROP BASIC GENEVA RULE
But State Department objects to removal of protection from degrading treatment

- Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times / Monday, June 5, 2006

Washington -- The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to military officials, a step that would mark a potentially permanent shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

The decision culminates a lengthy debate within the Department of Defense, but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed.

However, the State Department fiercely opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Convention protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, Defense officials acknowledged.

For more than a year, the Pentagon has been redrawing policies on detainees and interrogation, and intends to issue a new Army Field Manual, which, along with accompanying directives, represents core instructions to U.S. soldiers worldwide.

The process has been beset by debate and controversy, but the decision to omit Geneva Convention protections from a principal directive comes at a time of growing worldwide criticism of U.S. detention practices and the conduct of American forces in Iraq.

The directive on interrogations, a senior Defense official said, is being rewritten to create safeguards so that detainees are treated humanely but can still be questioned effectively.

President Bush's critics and supporters have debated whether it is possible to prove a direct link between administration declarations that it will not be bound by Geneva and events such as the abuses at Abu Ghraib or the killings of civilians last year at Haditha, Iraq, allegedly by U.S. Marines. But the exclusion of the Geneva provisions may make it more difficult for the administration to portray such incidents as aberrations.

The detainee directive was due to be released in April along with the Army Field Manual on interrogations. But objections from several senators on other Field Manual issues forced a delay. Senators objected to provisions allowing harsher interrogation techniques for unlawful combatants, such as suspected terrorists, as opposed to traditional prisoners of war.

The lawmakers argue that differing standards of treatment allowed by the Field Manual would violate a broadly supported anti-torture measure advanced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. McCain last year pushed Congress to ban torture and cruel treatment and to establish the Army Field Manual as the uniform standard for treatment of all detainees. Despite administration opposition, the measure passed and became law.

For decades, it was the official policy of the U.S. military to follow minimum standards for treating detainees as laid out in the Geneva Convention. But, in 2002, President Bush suspended portions of the Geneva Convention for captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Among the directives being rewritten following Bush's 2002 order is one governing U.S. detention operations. Military lawyers and other Defense officials wanted the redrawn version of the document to again embrace Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention. The protections for detainees in Article 3 go beyond the McCain amendment by prohibiting humiliation, treatment that falls short of cruelty or torture. However, the move to restore U.S. adherence to Article 3 was opposed by Vice President Dick Cheney's office and by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, government sources said.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/05/MNGSVJ8H171.DTL